Disney uses food waste to help power park, hotels

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - Juice Bar in Orlando, Florida serves-up fresh juices and always tries to stay green. 

For more than a year, they'd been one of the first Orlando businesses to use special green garbage pails to collect the food scraps they don't use. Before that, manager Kaley Winters said they'd toss their organic waste in the dumpster.

“Two huge bags a day,” Winters said, “just going to the trash and sitting there.”

It used to go to the city dump. Now it's carted it to a special plant at Walt Disney World Resort that uses it for biofuel to power the park and hotels.

“We thought it was going to going out to be composted and help gardens and stuff,” Winters said, “to find out it's helping EPCOT and create energy, it's pretty exciting.”

When foods rot it releases methane gas. The plant uses the gas for fuel and turns what's left into fertilizer.

“Getting creative about recycling, and offering a program like food waste collection is very innovative. There's isn't another city in the State of Florida offering a food waste program,” said Chris Castro, Orlando Sustainability and Resilience Director.

The green bin program is now available to any Orlando business that wants one. Kaley said it's worked for them.

“It's actually brought the cost down, she doesn't pay the dumpster fee anymore. We just pay for the compost.”